FROM

(Global)– a whole separate atrocity from fur farming and skinning–
animals left in traps, sometimes for days. Often stomped on by trappers if
found still alive. About two-thirds of the animals caught in the
indiscriminate traps are “junk” catch– animals not used for fur, including
domestic dogs and cats.

There are various types of traps, including snares, underwater traps, and
Conibear traps, but the leghold trap is the most widely used. The American
Veterinary Medical Association calls these traps “inhumane.” This simple but
barbaric device has been banned in 88 countries and in a growing number of
states across the U.S. since 1973, including California, Florida, Rhode
Island, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Washington state. In 1994, Arizona
banned the use of leghold traps on public lands. California voters
prohibited all commercial leghold traps in 1998, and Washington voters
followed suit, adding a ban on body-gripping traps, in November 2000.

When an animal steps on the leghold trap spring, the trap’s jaws slam on
the animal’s limb. The animal will frantically struggle in excruciating pain
as the trap cuts into his or her flesh, often down to the bone, mutilating
the foot or leg. Some animals, especially mothers desperate to get back to
their young, fight so vigorously that they attempt to chew or twist off
their trapped limb. This struggle may last hours. Eventually, the animal
succumbs to exhaustion and often exposure, frostbite, shock, and death.

If trapped animals do not die from blood loss, infection, or gangrene,
they will probably be killed by predators or hunters. Victims of water-set
traps, including beavers and muskrats, can take up to 20 agonizing minutes
to drown.

Because many trapped animals are mutilated by predators before trappers
return, pole traps are often used. A pole trap is a form of leghold trap
that is set in a tree or on a pole. Animals caught in these traps are
hoisted into the air and left to hang by the caught appendage until they die
or the trapper arrives to kill them. Conibear traps crush animals’ necks,
applying 90 pounds of pressure per square inch. It takes animals three to
eight minutes to suffocate in these traps.

Traps Do Not Always Kill

For animals who stay alive in the traps, further torture awaits them when
the trappers return. State regulations on how often trappers must check
their traps vary from 24 hours to one week. Some states have no regulations
at all. To avoid damaging the pelt, trappers usually beat or stomp their
victims to death. A common stomping method is to pin the head with one foot
and stand on the chest area near the heart with the other foot for several
minutes, which suffocates the animal.

"Accidental" Victims

Every year, dogs, cats, birds, and other animals, including endangered
species, are crippled or killed by traps. Trappers call these animals “trash
kills” because they have no economic value. In Middleboro, Mass., the body
of a skinned dog was found with his front paw missing. Evidence led the
investigating officer to believe a trapper caught the dog in a leghold trap,
then shot and skinned him. In Oregon, a woman watched helplessly as her
companion dog let out screams of pain after stepping into a steel-jaw
leghold trap hidden in a meadow frequented by people and their companion
dogs. It took three firefighters 24 grueling minutes to release the
terrified dog from the trap. In Montana, a woman walking her dogs on public
land struggled frantically as her canine companion screamed and writhed in
agony when he suddenly became trapped by a baited Conibear trap. She
unsuccessfully tried to release the clamp as her beloved companion slowly
suffocated. “I’ve never seen anything as traumatic as this girl trying to
raise the dog from the trap,” said a witness who heard the woman’s screams
for help. Later, she discovered that another dog had been caught in a
Conibear trap on the same trapline only six days earlier and that the
trapper responsible for the traps had been informed at that time by a game
warden.

Ecological Concerns

Contrary to fur-industry propaganda, there is no ecologically sound
reason to trap animals for fur; In fact, trapping disrupts wildlife
populations by killing healthy animals needed to keep their species strong,
and populations are further damaged when the parents of young animals are
killed. Left alone, animal populations can and do regulate their own
numbers. Even if human intervention or an unusual natural occurrence caused
an animal population to rise temporarily, the group would soon stabilize
through natural processes no more cruel, even at their worst, than the pain
and trauma of being trapped and slaughtered by humans. Killing animals
because they might starve or might get sick is simply an excuse for
slaughter motivated by greed and ignorance

Recent progress: Israel has introduced the world’s first nationwide bill
to prohibit the fur industry in its entirety, including all importation,
production and all sales in Israel. Also the 2009 EU ban on seal fur will
make a huge difference on the annual Canadian seal slaughter.

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